This is strictly opinion, but I think the Phase 5/Mars concept is foolish.
Phase 5 is an AMSAT-DL project, not an AMSAT-NA project.
73, Drew KO4MA
----- Original Message ----- From: "John Marranca, Jr" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 6:22 AM Subject: [amsat-bb] Phase 5
This is strictly opinion, but I think the Phase 5/Mars concept is foolish.
-- _______________________________
John Marranca, Jr PBX Technician/Shop Steward CWA Local 1122 BN Systems, Inc Orchard Park, NY (716)972-2006 _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
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On 11 Dec 2007, at 12:29, Andrew Glasbrenner wrote:
Phase 5 is an AMSAT-DL project, not an AMSAT-NA project.
Maybe so, but there is a significant level of support for Phase 5 outside of DL..
This is strictly opinion, but I think the Phase 5/Mars concept is foolish.
And I for one am in favour of the Phase 5/Mars project..
John
John Marranca, Jr wrote:
This is strictly opinion, but I think the Phase 5/Mars concept is foolish.
John, Fred, AMSAT members:
Phase 5A is a dream of Karl Meinzer that has been adopted by AMSAT-DL. It is not a distraction from delivering communications satellites. Many of the subsystems needed to support the P5A mission are being put into P3E for testing. These include the IHU-3, the ultrastable oscillator, an all SDR telecommand link, etc. Even though these are going into P3E, they are not the impediment to getting HEO payloads up. That said, nothing has been built for P5A while P3E is sitting waiting to be buttoned up for a ride to HEO to materialize.
The space world has changed absolutely, totally, completely in a way that cannot be easily understood by those not living it daily. For years, space was an adventure for lots of engineers and developers. Either NASA or ESA was doing develop of rockets and it was easy to work out some kind of relationship with the "steely eyed rocket men" to get our payloads hoisted into orbit.
During the middle of the P3D campaign, ESA handed over the Ariane to Arianespace completely. ESA is "like NASA" and Arianespace is a purveyor of space services and they care about the quarterly report. It left the hands of the steely eyed rocket men and went under the control of the bean counters. The concern of the latter group, being the counting of beans, is for the rider to make a business case for riding. Period, end of story.
No one is better than Karl Meinzer at figuring a case for someone giving us a ride. He has done this again. If you have N million dollars, where N is a number no one can afford, you can get a ride. When all of this really began to become apparent to AMSAT leadership everywhere, we began to pursue all sorts of avenues. For years we went down all sorts of blind alleys desperately trying to find a way to get a bird into a usable orbit by any means that we could afford.
Last summer, we heard of Intelsat's changed position on the ride-share situation. We have relentless pursued this since we learned of the opportunity at exactly the same moment as THE REST OF THE WORLD.
The all volunteer staff of AMSAT is trying very hard to finally pull together the complete tapestry needed to build a real mission to high earth orbit. It is as close as I have seen it since AO40 barely made it to orbit. We need support to get some things done. Either volunteer to be useful, send some money, or find another way to use your hobby hours and support that you can believe in.
Bob
Just talking as usual....nothing gets done!
No more money for you!
On Dec 11, 2007, at 11:33 AM, Robert McGwier wrote:
John Marranca, Jr wrote:
This is strictly opinion, but I think the Phase 5/Mars concept is foolish.
John, Fred, AMSAT members:
Phase 5A is a dream of Karl Meinzer that has been adopted by AMSAT-DL. It is not a distraction from delivering communications satellites. Many of the subsystems needed to support the P5A mission are being put into P3E for testing. These include the IHU-3, the ultrastable oscillator, an all SDR telecommand link, etc. Even though these are going into P3E, they are not the impediment to getting HEO payloads up. That said, nothing has been built for P5A while P3E is sitting waiting to be buttoned up for a ride to HEO to materialize.
The space world has changed absolutely, totally, completely in a way that cannot be easily understood by those not living it daily. For years, space was an adventure for lots of engineers and developers. Either NASA or ESA was doing develop of rockets and it was easy to work out some kind of relationship with the "steely eyed rocket men" to get our payloads hoisted into orbit.
During the middle of the P3D campaign, ESA handed over the Ariane to Arianespace completely. ESA is "like NASA" and Arianespace is a purveyor of space services and they care about the quarterly report. It left the hands of the steely eyed rocket men and went under the control of the bean counters. The concern of the latter group, being the counting of beans, is for the rider to make a business case for riding. Period, end of story.
No one is better than Karl Meinzer at figuring a case for someone giving us a ride. He has done this again. If you have N million dollars, where N is a number no one can afford, you can get a ride. When all of this really began to become apparent to AMSAT leadership everywhere, we began to pursue all sorts of avenues. For years we went down all sorts of blind alleys desperately trying to find a way to get a bird into a usable orbit by any means that we could afford.
Last summer, we heard of Intelsat's changed position on the ride-share situation. We have relentless pursued this since we learned of the opportunity at exactly the same moment as THE REST OF THE WORLD.
The all volunteer staff of AMSAT is trying very hard to finally pull together the complete tapestry needed to build a real mission to high earth orbit. It is as close as I have seen it since AO40 barely made it to orbit. We need support to get some things done. Either volunteer to be useful, send some money, or find another way to use your hobby hours and support that you can believe in.
Bob
-- AMSAT Director and VP Engineering. Member: ARRL, AMSAT-DL, TAPR, Packrats, NJQRP, QRP ARCI, QCWA, FRC. ARRL SDR WG Chair “An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?” Descartes _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (5)
-
Andrew Glasbrenner -
John Heaton -
John Marranca, Jr -
MKM -
Robert McGwier